BERLINERS: Come to my new queerish hip hop party BERRIES on September 12 at OHM Berlin (The former SHIFT). The kick-off of the Berries Berlin features a hip hop set by Lotic, mixed beats with DJ Obstsalat aka Tanja Saphir who will also play the beats for a live set of MC Kovo 22. I will open and close the evening with my friend Dominik as Stitch & Tchuani.

Berlin queer underground and DIY heroes Scream Club have two pretty good reasons to celebrate these days, and we celebrate with them: Not only has the electro-hip-hop duo just released a beautiful new video to its new single “Fire” (directed by Berlin based artist Chris Wiegand and shot in Stockholm) …

+++ Cakes Da Killa‘s new album “The Eulogy” is now online and can (and SHOULD) be streamed and downloaded for free via Bandcamp / Mishka NYC or right here:

+++ Planningtorock has released a new song Misogyny Drop Down - a wonderful, de-gendered hymn against gender-based discrimination with nice house references. The song will soon be released on a new EP on the new exciting Human Level label, which also released Planningtorock’s Patriarchy over & out split single with rRoxymore last year.

+++ THEESatisfaction have a beautiful new EP dedicated to Erykah Badu. You can stream “THEESatisfaction Loves Erykah Badu” here and buy it via Bandcamp (price on a sliding scale):

+++ Portland based duo Unicorn Domination aka Chelsea Dixon and Clint Havard have self-released a cute synth and beat based debut album entitled “Status” in March last year. Last week I’ve stumbled over the video to their single “Babblestacks”, and since then I can’t get the track out of my head. The video shot in Los Angeles was directed by artist and filmmaker Jessie Kahnweiler.

When the media hype around new queer hip hop artists reached its peak last year, many journalists and bloggers highlighted House of Ladosha in line with artists such as LE1F and Mykki Blanco, assuming that the name stands solely for a music act. But it would be a mistake to reduce the New York based collective to its music, even if the music created and performed by Ladosha members Dosha Devastation and Cunty Crawford Ladosha is the most visible part of the collective.
Nevertheless, “Ladosha” stands for a group of individual artists and performers, who in their own way continue the concept of the “house” as it emerged from the Ballroom community as a way of opposing traditional ideas of family and “the home”. The concept of “house” is meant in a more abstract way. It is about a state of mind, about friendship and shared interests such as music, art and fashion, with house members who all question and transform stereotypical ideas of race, sexuality and gender in their own creative ways.
New Yorkers now have the possibility to explore the Ladosha world through an exhibition at Superchief gallery, which will open on Thursday. “The Whole House Eats” curated by artist and Ladosha member Christopher Udemezue aka Neon Christina Ladosha will feature artwork, video and photography by the members of the Ladosha family, as well as a live performance by Dosha Devastation and Cunty Crawford Ladosha, who will perform at the opening. If you want to know what awaits you can check out the video below or the exhibition tumblr, as well as the Ladosha soundcloud page, where they just recently posted a new track entitled “9 or 11″. For a more theoretical introduction to the exhibition and the galleries opening hours check out the Superchief website.

“The Whole House Eats”, February 7th to 14th at Superchief Gallery at Culturfix, 9 Clinton Street, New York.

LE1F has released his new single “Coins” via Soundcloud today. The track (originally produced for the Norwegian hip hop act A-laget by Norwegian producers Drippin & Souldrop last year) will be on his upcoming mixtape “Fly Zone” which will be out next Monday (download here):

Cakes the Killa is about to release his new mixtape (album?) “The Eulogy” via Mishka Records on Tuesday. The first single is called “Goodie” and is the ideal continuation of his debut tape “Easy Bake Oven” from 2011:

The members of House of Ladosha will be featured in a group exhibition entitled “The Whole House Eats” at Superchief Gallery, NYC, which opens on February 7th and will for run week. Will will provide more information soon. Meanwhile, here’s the latest Ladosha track ”9 OR 11″:

For Catch Fire Abdu has prepared a commented picture series of his five favorite places in Baltimore and gives us a little insight on different aspects of his everyday live. It is the second contribution to our new “Favorite Places” section, which was started by Berlin based artist Rodeo a few weeks ago. Picture on top by Holly Miller.

THEM is a new exciting queer rap duo consisting of Figaro the Kid from Columbia, SC and TCHNCLR from Atlanta, GA, which have decided to join forces about a year ago. In July the duo has released its first mixtape, which combines boncy beats with nervous ravey synths, followed by a Remix EP released a few weeks ago (cover on top), featuring a bunch of other promising new artists like Virginia rapper Prince Airick, North Carolinian Pariah Carey, Cakes da Killa beatmaker VIACOM CANNON and Bangkok based artist TrinityTiny1. For Catch Fire the duo has prepared another (very entertaining) commented list of their 5 favorite web clips, which allows to trace back a couple of THEM’s musical roots.

“Cibo Matto is everything. They’re one of my favorite bands of all time and one of the biggest inspirations to me. I’m constantly crying because I will probably never get to see them play live (they didn’t come even remotely near me for their reunion tour). Maybe if I bother them enough on twitter enough they’ll make music with us.” (Figaro)